WHY DEMOCRATS WILL NOT IMPEACH BUSH

This piece by Gary Kamiya in Salon is exceptional and right on the mark. Talking about why the Democrats think that it is bad politics to start impeachment proceedings against George Bush, Kamiya observes:

"But there's a deeper reason why the popular impeachment movement has never taken off -- and it has to do not with Bush but with the American people. Bush's warmongering spoke to something deep in our national psyche. The emotional force behind America's support for the Iraq war, the molten core of an angry, resentful patriotism, is still too hot for Congress, the media and even many Americans who oppose the war, to confront directly. It's a national myth. It's John Wayne. To impeach Bush would force us to directly confront our national core of violent self-righteousness -- come to terms with it, understand it and reject it. And we're not ready to do that."

An angry resentful patriotism and a violent self-righteousness - these are powerful words and even more powerful ideas. And they ring true.

The concept of American exceptionalism pervades the American culture. We are the land of the free and the home of the brave, as if it applied only to the United States. We must support the president in times of war. Our soldiers are the most noble and the bravest in the world. We are fighting and dying for freedom and liberty.

George Bush should be certainly impeached for this dishonorable and unjustified war. But we all know Gary Kamiya is correct. Bush won't be impeached because that would in effect be the same as bringing charges of impeachment against the entire country, or at least against millions of Americans who believe the bogus claims of American exceptionalism with burning righteousness.